High-ranking Chinese Communist Party officials get to lunch at The Lodge with the Prime Minister Mr Rudd but Australians who want to lodge their protest at foreign government ownership of Australia’s sovereign wealth resources don’t enjoy that luxury, said Senator Barnaby Joyce, the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate.
“I have received hundreds of emails in the past week from Australians who are scared that we are losing the connection to the wealth that created the nation because of the current, in some instances, self-induced financial problems of certain corporate interests,” Senator Joyce said.
“Selling mines to foreign-government controlled entities will change the face of Australia forever. People have contacted me from throughout Australia and demanded to have their voices heard because they realise this is not an ordinary business deal.
“It is my job to give them the capacity to have their voices heard and to relay this concern to the Foreign Investment Review Board and ultimately the Treasurer to say the word ‘No’.”
About the petition:
Please go to http://www.barnabyjoyce.com.au/Issues/Petition/tabid/99/Default.aspx Names, emails and postcode details will be collected but will not be displayed on the website. The petition says: “Letting foreign governments own Australia’s minerals and other sovereign assets through foreign state-owned investment companies will change the wealth base in our nation forever and must be stopped. Your petitioners ask that the Senate recommend to the Treasurer that any such proposals be disallowed on the grounds of national interest.”